Today's approaches for testing network data transmission performance are realized by downloading data files from a server with a user's equipment (UE). Such test approaches are known as “speed tests” and are available as computer programs, applications on the UE or as web-based services.
In the patent publication US 2008/0059848 A1 a data transmission speed test system is described in which a test file is uploaded and downloaded between different network nodes of a data communications network. The time duration for uploading and downloading of the test file is measured. The transmission speed is calculated based on the test file size and the time duration for downloading and/or uploading.
Often, the uploading and the downloading is combined in a sequential test, where at first the test file is downloaded or uploaded and afterwards the opposite direction is used. There are test applications that apply a short pre-test for choosing the best performance or closest hosting server for the speed test.
The state of the art performance tests are restricted to the downloading and uploading of the test files, either partially or completely, or for predefined time durations. Depending on the test file size and/or the predefined test duration, those tests cause high data traffic and/or will deliver results for a short time only.
Especially for high-speed mobile networks, a longer speed test will lead to a large data volume transmitted only for the purpose of speed testing. The observation of a longer period or the seamless repetition of those tests will cause heavy loads for the tested network and the respective network nodes. In case of mobile application, the excessive or automated use of those data transmission performance tests will utilize significant volumes of bandwidth, reducing the available user or subscriber bandwidth and thereby adversely affecting network performance for the users or subscribers in the network.
What is needed, therefore, is an approach for testing data transmission performance in a network without overly consuming network resources and thereby minimizing adverse impact on available bandwidth and network performance for user/subscriber network data communications and services.